Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[Cochise]

I've always been of the opinion with Ange that we should trust him to implement his system.

The problem is that I don't think we are ever going to give him what he needs. I don't think we will ever pay top dollar for the wingers he wants, I don't think we will get him the #6 that he needs either because they are a unicorn or if they do exist are far too expensive for us.

So I'm in a place where I feel like he has to change. There are players here that can do more than the roles they have been pigeon holed in to.

 

[DannyNZ]

Papered over the cracks today with a late win but that was an embarrassing performance and tactical display.

I admire Ange the person, but I'm losing faith in Ange the manager.

Turgid performance, sadly that performance really says so much about squad depth and quality. Bent and Sarr were basically ineffective in the midfield but worse was they had no urgency, Werner was just awful and Bergvall and Gray looked like what they are promising inexperienced kids. Werner and Johnson needed fast delivery but we played in a stupefied slow motion.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Ambitious Postecoglou is following Bill Nicholson mantra at Tottenham

It is strange to see the Spurs manager’s confidence be presented as a problem

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Timbo Tottenham]

Ange sounded like a dalek in his interview.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Here lies our biggest problem, congestion and bad movement.

 

[SpursForever71]

The winning move, Deki on for Werner... needed to be forced by an injury.

Otherwise Djed did well. So he probably gets another 25 minutes in 2024.

Ange is not giving me confidence at the moment. And even worse, i don't think the players either.

I mean Werner should be nowhere near our squad let alone 1st eleven. No idea why we extended his loan, nowhere near good enough, even as a squad option

 

[SpursForever71]

Same problems but it is a cup game and at least it didn't end up like Colchester or Sheffield United. Credit where it's due with Spence coming on.

But this style of play of pushing 9 players forward isn't worth it if no one is going to have the urgency to take a shot because what is all that risk for? This team has not shown any ability for almost a whole year of keeping a clean sheet so what's with the neat passing to get in the box just to start all over again.

spot on. we push all these players forward, have no idea when we get to the final 3rd, then get countered.

 

[Monkey boy]

The problem Ange has is that every team bar City and Liverpool will deploy the same tactic which is to sit deep and let us walk right in to the trap of over committing men who basically clog up our own attack and force us to get countered on. Unfortunately it’s seems that Ange has absolutely no answer to this as we don’t look like we know how to create a shot let alone a decent chance. It’s very worrying.

 

[Trent Crimm]

As I said in the match thread, we’ve all seen enough Europa league games, and early cup rounds to know how disjointed we can look when we make numerous changes. Even under peak Poch there were games like this.

We shouldn’t have been surprised with this showing, as frustrating as it was to watch.

With that in mind I don’t think it really tells us anything about the manager’s suitability or the direction of travel to be honest with you. It was just a typical cup game against lower league opposition.

End of the day we got the result and we go through.

Exactly. We got the free points and vats all that matters. We go again.

 

[midoshairband]

We've bought three wingers since he's been here. I don't believe we're signing players that he doesn't want.

i don't believe we're signing the players he really wants.

but I'm not excusing him - we should be doing better than we are with what we have.

 

[Metalhead]

The problem Ange has is that every team bar City and Liverpool will deploy the same tactic which is to sit deep and let us walk right in to the trap of over committing men who basically clog up our own attack and force us to get countered on. Unfortunately it’s seems that Ange has absolutely no answer to this as we don’t look like we know how to create a shot let alone a decent chance. It’s very worrying.

I think that he probably feels that he has the answer and that is to keep plugging away until it clicks. Whether it does remains to be seen but I suspect that he has faith in his philosophy.

 

[mil1lion]

Took a massive gamble with so many changes. He must have wanted to just get minutes to players. I hope he keeps at least half a first team going forward. No more than 4 changes otherwise we look clueless. Treat Europa like CL.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

I said this - to some disagreement in the match thread - but we don't have anyone right now who can shoot.

Son, Maddison and to some extent Kulusevski can create a shot for themselves.

Solanke can't create his own shot, and is too slow to get the ball out of his feet in traffic. We know about Werner. Johnson can score - when we hit on a break and he gets on the end of a cross, but not when he has to find a shot in and around the box.

Bergvall has not shown that ability yet. We know Sarr likes to shoot, he is just not very effective at it.

That’s why you have attacking players… to create chances for your other players to shoot..?

The biggest issue is we aren’t creating any chances, not that we’re not finishing them..

 

[Johnny J]

Same story: loads of possession, minimal threat. Coventry had more shots in total, blocked shots, on target and off target.

Our forwards, as a whole, are just so deficient.

 

[muppetman]

I’m trying to remain positive and still think we need to finally stick with a manager when it’s not going well, but that was really bad tonight.

For an all out attacking manager we really aren’t creating enough.

The good news is that Ange clearly knows this isn’t good enough, but we really need a spark from somewhere.

 

[Johnny J]

I’m trying to remain positive and still think we need to finally stick with a manager when it’s not going well, but that was really bad tonight.

For an all out attacking manager we really aren’t creating enough.

The good news is that Ange clearly knows this isn’t good enough, but we really need a spark from somewhere.

The worrying thing for me is that our opponents know exactly how to set up against us. Let us have the ball, watch us pass it around aimlessly with zero movement up front, and make the most of the counters.

Coventry had about 30% possession today but looked much more threatening than we did.

City dominate possession but they have such intelligent players with such good movement and quick passing that they can, 95% of the time, capitalise on that possession even when opponents are sitting off.

I know we don't have players at the level of City, but our attack is just so fucking ponderous and clueless much of the time.

We almost always play the ball into feet, but we have exactly one winger who seems capable of beating his man. Which means often our forwards just get the ball, look around, pass it backwards or sideways. So little balls into space in behind.

Our forwards just don't seem to be at all what Ange needs. Johnson isn't going to turn into Doku, or even Doku lite, at this point in his career. He doesn't have the technical ability and to be fair to him that's not his game. I don't understand why we bought him if we're expecting him to go past players who stand him up. He's good running into space and we saw a bit of that today. Obviously the social media abuse or indeed any abuse is unacceptable.

Werner is no threat at all, Kulusevski has skills but no pace, Son simply can't play effectively out wide at this point in his career.

I just don't see how our attack will click unless we replace at least three of them, and I can't see that happening.

Sorry for the pessimistic post. I think Ange's tactics can work but he needs the right players. I simply don't believe Odobert or Werner were anywhere near the top of our lists. Johnson seems unsuited to our style.

 

[thebenjamin]

Same story: loads of possession, minimal threat. Coventry had more shots in total, blocked shots, on target and off target.

Our forwards, as a whole, are just so deficient.

Down to the absolute bare bones now as well. Son and Johnson will be flogged to death, reducing the level of their performances even further

 

[Johnny J]

Down to the absolute bare bones now as well. Son and Johnson will be flogged to death

It's going to be a long season.

 

[muppetman]

The worrying thing for me is that our opponents know exactly how to set up against us. Let us have the ball, watch us pass it around aimlessly with zero movement up front, and make the most of the counters.

Coventry had about 30% possession today but looked much more threatening than we did.

City dominate possession but they have such intelligent players with such good movement and quick passing that they can, 95% of the time, capitalise on that possession even when opponents are sitting off.

I know we don't have players at the level of City, but our attack is just so fucking ponderous and clueless much of the time.

We almost always play the ball into feet, but we have exactly one winger who seems capable of beating his man. Which means often our forwards just get the ball, look around, pass it backwards or sideways. So little balls into space in behind.

Our forwards just don't seem to be at all what Ange needs. Johnson isn't going to turn into Doku, or even Doku lite, at this point in his career. He doesn't have the technical ability and to be fair to him that's not his game. I don't understand why we bought him if we're expecting him to go past players who stand him up. He's good running into space and we saw a bit of that today. Obviously the social media abuse or indeed any abuse is unacceptable.

Werner is no threat at all, Kulusevski has skills but no pace, Son simply can't play effectively out wide at this point in his career.

I just don't see how our attack will click unless we replace at least three of them, and I can't see that happening.

Sorry for the pessimistic post. I think Ange's tactics can work but he needs the right players. I simply don't believe Odobert or Werner were anywhere near the top of our lists. Johnson seems unsuited to our style.

I can’t disagree with any of that. I just have to hope that Pep struggled at the start and got there so maybe Ange can?

We can’t keep binning off managers.

 

[thebenjamin]

It's going to be a long season.

Already feels like it's been going on for months. I just can't fathom how the ciub possibly thought we had done enough in terms of forwards options but we are where we are